Lighter for gas burners



Sept. 19, 93 c. w. MUMMERY LIGHTER FOR GAS BU RNERS 2 Sheets-$heet 1Filed July 6, 1936 INVENTQR. Q ms Mm/mvzzr BY A ORNEY.

Sept. 19, 1939. c. w. MUMMERY LIGHTER FOR GAS BURNERS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2Filed July 6, 1936 ATTORNEY.

Patented Sept. 19, 1939 1 UNITED STATES PATENT orFicE LIGHTER FOR GASBURNERS Clyde W. Mummery, Detroit, Mich., assignor to The Midland SteelProducts Company, Cleveland, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio ApplicationJuly 6, 1936, Serial No. 89,069 2 Claims. (Cl. 158-415) This inventionrelates to new and useful imgas from the supply to cause elongatedflames to provements in lighters for gas burners and the extend from thepilot to the four burners. In like. ranges including baking ovens, aconstantly burn- An important object of the invention is to proing pilotwithin the oven in proximity to the 5 vide a lighter for range top gasburners and the oven burner is required, as the distance from 5 likewhich will also light an oven burner. the pilot to the oven burner istoo greater to per- More particularly it is an important object mit theprojection of a flame from the pilot light of the invention to providefor the temporary on the range top into the oven. trapping of a body ofcombustible gas or vapor There have been proposed lighters for rangefrom the source of supply whereby the several top burners which causethe gas to flow from the 10 lighter tubes may be completely filled withthe burner to be lighted to the pilot to be ignited and gas forimmediate and automatic ignition upon cause a flash back to the burner.completion of the gas trapping action. With the present invention it isproposed to Another more specific object of the invention trap aquantity of gas or gasoline vapor from the is to provide an automaticlighter for gasoline main supply pipe to reduce its pressure and sub- ]5pressure stoves which requires no constant consequently ignite the gaswhereby a flash across sumption of gas vapor due to the arrangement allburners including the oven burner is obtained providing for thegenerating burner as a pilot with the use of only a predeterminedquantity light. of gas or gas vapor.

A still further object of the invention is to While the presentinvention may be employed 20 provide special lighter tubes which retardthe in conjunction with natural or manufactured gas flow of gastherethrough and cooperate in the with slight modifications in thearrangement, gas trapping action for the purpose of achieving it hasbeen illustrated in the present instance a longer flash of flame fromeach lighter tube for use in conjunction with gasoline pressure andconsequently more positive automatic lightburners which include agasoline vapor generat- 2!- ing of the burners. ing tube G having anatomizing valve not shown,

Other objects and advantages of the invention to which gasoline is fedthrough a pipe I and air will become apparent during the course of thethrough pipe H. The generator is disposed above following description.an elongated generator burner GB and enters In the accompanying drawingsforming a part a carburetor C where it mixes with air and is 30 of theapplication and wherein like numerals are then discharged into adistributing chamber D employed to designate like parts throughout theconnected to a distributing manifold M for the several views, open rangeburners B and oven burner desig- Fig. 1 is a top plan, somewhatdiagrammatically nated OB. The individual arms of the distrib- .of theinvention applied to range burners, the uting manifold M are eachprovided with a valve source of supply of which, is also connected to asshown in dotted lines controlled by rotary an oven burner, valve stemsdesignated R for the rear open burn- Fig. 2 is an enlarged plan of apart of the ers, F for the front open burners and O for the lighter,oven burner. The carburetor C is provided with Fig. 3 is a section ofthe same taken on the an air intake opening C and in this depending line3-3 of Fig. 2 showing it applied to a gas portion of the carburetor ispositioned an absorbmanifold of a gasoline pressure stove. ent pad ormaterial 6 to absorb any liquid fuel Fig. 4 is an enlarged section of apart of a gaswhich may get into the carburetor for preventing olinevapor manifold illustrating another form the appearance of white smokyflames at any of 5 of absorption material disposed therein for pretheburners. cluding white smoky flames from the burners, The generatorburner is supplied with gasoline and vapor from the distributor by theconduit Fig. 5 is an enlarged longitudinal section of a A spongeor'other absorbent material 1 is also portion of one of the lightertubes. disposed in the bottom of distributor D and sim- Perhaps the mostwidely used form of auto ilar material may be disposed in the manifoldr0 matic lighter for gas ranges operating upon natat advantageous pointsWhere condensation of ural and manufactured gas, employs one pilotgaseous vapor is apt to occur. In Fig. 4 a modilight which is constantlyburning atapoint equified form of absorbent pad 8 is illustrated asdistant from the four range top burners. being cylindrical and fastenedto the bottom'of Through this pilot is projected four streams of thedistributor by means of a cap screw 9 pass;

ing through the center of the pad and through a metallic perforatedshield or screen in embracing the same.

The lighter of the present invention includes a two piece housing, thefront part ii of which is a closed chamber detachably connected by boltsl3 to the other part l2 forming a valve casing. A pair of dished metalscreens l4 separate these two parts of the: housing and are positionedin the joint between the parts as illustrated in Fig. 3. This screen ispreferably of a type to prevent any back fires from the lighter chamber,ll into the manifold.

The valve chamber portion of the housing is provided with a pair ofintegral laterally extending attaching ears for connecting the housingto the open top of the distributing chamber or to any desired portion ofthe manifold M. The valve chamber is provided with an annular internalvalve seat l6 having a restricted passage therethrough and upon which asliding valve I1 is normally seated by means of a coil spring l8 bearingagainst a removable plug I9 in the extreme end of the valve chamber.This coil spring is preferably loaded sufficiently to prevent anyexplosion in the lighter chamber i i from unseating the valve andentering the fuel supply manifold. The bottom of the valve chamber isprovided with an aperture 20 to permit the passage of fuel from themanifold into the valve chamber l2. In gasoline pressure stoves as wellas those employing natural or manufactured gas, the fuel in the manifoldor supply pipe is of course under pressure and when the valve I1 ismoved against the tension of spring [8 by the valve operating rod 2 i,fuel under pressure passes the valve seat, the screen i4 and into thelighter chamber II. The valve operating rod 2i passes through theforward end of the lighter chamber and is extended toward the front ofthe stove to be provided with an operating valve button or handle Linaplane with the handles of burner valves.

In order to conduct the gas vapors from the lighter chamber II to apoint in proximity to the respective burners D, lighter tubes 22communicate with the chamber il in air tight fashion through the sidewalls thereof and radiate therefrom as shown best in Fig. 1. To conveythe gas vapor from the chamber II to a point inside the oven and inproximity to the oven burner OB, a tube 23 extends from the side of thechamber ii in communication therewith to be attached in any suitablemanner whereby the flash of gas therefrom will traverse the oven burnercausing ignition when the oven burner valve C is open. All of thesetubes 22 and 23 are provided with gas retarding means and this means maybe provided by corrugating or otherwise roughening the interior surfacesof tubes 22 and 23. However, in the preferred embodiment each of theselighter tubes 22 and 23 is composed of flexible conduit material formedby spirally winding the section shown in overlapping relation withpacking cord and between the overlapped portions, as shown clearly inFig. 5. This obviously provides the interiors of the tubes with lateralpockets which effectively retard the flow of gas therethrough. The outerends of the lighter tubes 22 may be supported in any suitable manner inproximity to the burners D so that the burning gas therefrom will extendsubstantially diametrically across each burner B. All of these lightertubes are preferably arranged with respect to the chamber Ii so as toreceive the gaseous vapor from the manifold in the least amount of timewhen the valve I1 is open.

In order to ignite the gas in the lighter chamber H and lighter tubes atthe proper time, a short tube 24 extends in air tight fashion into thelighter chamber Ii, preferably through the bottom thereof, while itsfree end is of reduced cross section and is supported above thegenerator burner GB under the generating tube G in any suitable manner.Consequently, tube 24 forms, in

effect, a continuation of any of the lighter tubes due to all of themcommunicating with the interior of the lighter chamber II.

The operation of the form of invention disclosed herein is as follows:This setup being for a gasoline pressure burner, it is understood thatgasoline and air are fed to the generator tube G under pressure incontrolled quantities so that the liquid gasoline is highly vaporized asit passes through the carburetor C and into the distributing chamber D.From this chamber, the vaporized gas is free to pass through the pipe Pinto the generating burner, which is lighted to maintain the operationof the other burners. The heat from this generating burner heats thegenerator tube G and assists further in the vaporization of the fuel,which as before stated, passes from the distributing chamber into themanifold M and to the respective burners ready for ignition. It is ofcourse essential for the generating burner to be continually burning,and as such, forms a pilot light which constantly burns at the outletend of tube 24. Tolight any selected burner, its valve, controlling theflow of gasoline vapor thereto, is opened to allow gas to flow from themanifold through the slits or apertures in the burner so as to beignited as soon as a spark or flame is created in proximity thereto. Forthis purpose, the valve rod 21 is forced inwardly thereby lifting valveII from its seat It and permitting gasoline vapor under pressure toenter the valve chamber, pass the seat It screen l4 to flll the lighterchamber II and each of the tubes 22 and 23 all the way out to theirrespective burners. By reason of the disposition of the pipes 22, 23,and 24 the lightertubes are permitted to become completely filled withgasoline vapor during the momentaryv opening of valve l'l because thisgasoline vapor is under pressure. Accordingly, the operator only holdsthe valve I'I open momentarily and the gasoline vapor at the free end oftube 24 is ignited by the generator burner flame, but does not pass intochamber ll due to the pressure and velocity of gas entering throughvalve i1. However, as soon as this rod 2i is released and the spring l8closes valve ii, the pressure and velocity no longer keeps the flame atthe end of tube 24, and accordingly, spontaneously, the gas in thechamber ii and the tubes 22 and 23 is ignited in somewhat of a. slightexplosion so that the burning gases are forcibly ejected from the freeends of these flve tubes across the burners to ignite whichever one ormore has been turned on prior thereto. In spite of the distance of theoven burner from the lighter chamber I l, nevertheless a very elongatedflash of flame is projected from the tube 23 across the oven burner dueto the fact that this tube has been filled with gas or combustible vaporprior to the flame at the end of tube 24 igniting the entire body of gasin the chamber upon closing of theinlet valve l'l.

It will be understood that various changes in the size, shape andarrangement of parts may be resorted to without departing from thespirit of the invention or the scope or the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In an oven and open top range stove having oven and open top burners,a supply manifold for gas under pressure, a pilot remote from the ovenburner, an explosion chamber at substantially the center of the openrange top and remote'from the oven burner and connected with themanifold, a starter pipe connected to said chamber and having its freeend disposed near the pilot, lighter tubes having pocketed side wallsand radiating from the chamber to all burners to entrain or trap gastherein admitted from the combustion chamber, a normally closed valveclosing on the chamber from the gas supply manifold, and valve operatingmeans adapted to momentarily open the valve to permit the gas from themanifold to 1111 the chamber, lighter tubes and starter pipe and then toclose the valve to promote an explosion go from the pilot through thestarter pipe and chamber into all or the lighter tubes to all burnerssimultaneously.

2. In an oven and open top range stove having oven and open top burners,a supply manifold for gas under pressure, a pilot remote from the ovenburner, an explosion chamber terminating at one end in a valve chambercommunicating with the manifold, anti-back fire means between saidchambers, a valve normally cutting ofi communication between saidchambers, a starter pipe connected to said chamber and having its freeend disposed near the pilot, lighter tubes having pocketed side wallsand radiating from the chamber to all burners to entrain or trap gastherein admitted from the combustion chamber, and a manual push rodslidably mounted in the combustion chamber and adapted to open the valveto permit the gas 15 from the manifold and valve chamber to fill thechamber, lighter tubes and starter pipes and then to close the valve topromote an explosion from the pilot through the starter pipe and chamberinto all of the lighter tubes to all burners 2 simultaneously CLYDE W.MUMMERY.

